Richard's Blessing Day

December 6, 2008

We blessed cute baby Richard. For family blessings my mother makes blessing gowns/outfits and they are amazing. She has a great gift. I gave my mom a list of things I wanted on the blessing outfit. Richards blessing outfit looked like a little horse jocky. The blue booties he is wearing in the pictures are the same booties my father was blessed in. It was orignal and cute.
Afterwards we had ham and scalloped potatoes. Then we had a jam sesson of Guitar Hero. My mom got really into it. She was the band groupy. My Dad slept on the couch during the whole thing. I don't know how he could sleep with all that noise, he must have been REALLY tired. It was really fun. I love having so many great brothers and sisters and their spouses. The grandkids had fun in our dungeon of a basement. They don't care that it isn't finished and cold. They were just happy to be together.

The grass is always greener

Sometimes I wish I was a cat. I envy their daily 20 hours of sleep. Their simple way of life- eat- sleep- eat- sleep- run around crazy like then -eat -sleep -eat - sleep. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Then other days I think "how can you stand such a boring life?!"

We have 2 Persian cats. This is a picture of Luka, who is half the size of her son Charlie but has twice the you know whats. Actually Charlie is neutered and has no you know whats. When Luka was a kitten she had a skin mite problem. She lost her fur and was refered to as the "ugly one." We decided she needed a name so named her "Luke" because she looked liked she had leukemia. But then to our dismay we discovered that she was a "she" and not a "he." So we renamed her Luka. When I see pictures of her like the ones above, where she is fluffy and lazy, I just have to squeeze her. These are my babies that I had before my babies.

Black Friday Plague!

Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, so I'm a little bit "feast or famine" when it comes to blogging and checking my e-mail. You'll get over it I'm sure. I just have to share.

Wow. I got to get this off my back. I read today in the newspaper about an employee for Walmart that got trampled and KILLED when he was opening up the store for black friday. This happened in New York by Manhatten. Warning to Regan/Jacob Breinholt :). A few other people got trampled, including a pregnant woman, 8 months along. So get this....when the people were asked to leave the store because of the death.....they yelled that they had been waiting since thursday morning to shop and wouldn't leave.

How sad is that? How do we get so consumed by being consumers that we become inhumane? Like, what were they thinking? Just step over the dead man...I gotta get a DVD player for cheap. I personally have only once done black friday shopping. I felt that crazy frenzied feeling that comes. It is totally irrational. But the anxiety is there. You feel this shallow urgent need to find the item your looking for and the feeling that your missing out on some great deal.

But there really are no NEEDS, only WANTS, when it comes to Black Friday shopping. It's not like we are hunting for food and shelter. I get it...those cave man instincts kick in and the adrenaline is pumping. But still.... seriously, wouldn't you help someone up if they fell down? Even during crazy concerts that I've been to, people help people get up if they fall down. How ironic that a time of "Thanksgiving" has become a time of Getting and Consuming.

I would rather sleep-in instead of saving $10 on a DVD that I'll watch 2 times or at least shop online for the same deal. I don't like that materialist shallow anxiety feeling that Black Friday induces. It's like the Black Friday flu epidemic that effects a nation. The Black Friday plague. I'm thinking we may need to immunize for the next plague of 2009 to prevent further deaths. Maybe I'll start a foundation. SAVE THE TRAMPLED PEOPLE! IMMUNIZE BY 2009 AMERICA!

Court Finalization

We got a letter from the prosecutor a few days after court. Sherry's foster daughters were flaky with their testimonies. And I'm sure their attitude, I hate judges and court, didn't help. So they gave the kid, that scratched up both our cars and didn't show up for court, the benefit of the doubt. We lost.

I Am Perfect For Boys

2 Days Before Baby Richards Birthday

Dialogue

Me: Katrina lets hurry and get your home work done so that we can get to your play date. It's with a 2nd grader.

Katrina: Oh.... is it a boy or a girl.

Me: A boy.

Katrina: Oh good.....I am perfect for boys.

Wow, no self esteem issues there.

Me: Oh really.

Katrina: Except Ismael...."Si."

(Ishmael is the boy that lives a couple houses down-we call him her Latin lover-she gets frustrated because they only speak Spanish at his house-which explains the exasperated "si")

Scooters Don't Belong on Cars

At a halloween party a year ago some kids decided it would be hopping killer to ride their razer scooters on some cars in the parking lot. Well, both of our cars became stunt props along with half a dozen other cars. Needless to say both of our cars have had scratched-up hoods and roofs for a year. I noticed the scratches when I came out of the party. I asked around about it and was directed to three boys. Spencer and his Dad pursued them by car, it was very exciting, when they fled the crime scene. They detained them until the police came.

One of the boys was crying his eyes out. I felt bad for him. In Spanish he said his Dad was going to kill him and that he didn't want to get deported because his Mom was a police officer and it wasn't safe in the country they came from. Another boy's father had recently died. I wonder if he saw the families together at this party and became angry thus taking it out on the cars in the church parking lot. I felt bad for them, sometimes kids just don't think. But we had over $1600 of damage to our cars. One kid got charged (maybe the other kids got deported, who knows?) but get this....the KID PLED INNOCENT. There goes all my empathy out the window.

So yesterday, the justice system is a little slow, Spencer was court ordered, as a witness, to attend the hearing for the one kid. My mother-in-law and I know the juvenile court judge well because she was the judge for a lot of our foster daughters. I was hoping she would recognize Spencer's last name. But not much happened because...get this....the KID DIDN'T SHOW UP. So they are setting another date. Hopefully within the next decade!

So REMEMBER kids, we ride IN, not ON, cars! Give me a call, I'll give you a ride to the skate park.

Bad News

I'm kinda sad today. Yesterday, I found out I have a bad heart valve. I went in to my OBGYN yesterday to followup on the ER visit from last friday. Dr Wolsey said I had a heart murmur. Which was a surprise. So he paiged the cardiologist on-call and they got me in right-away for a echocardiogram. The echocardiogram showed water on the lungs and the leaking heart valve. Dr Carter the cardiologist said the leak looked like something you would see in an old Grandma. So I'm thinking, "Great I have a grandma heart." The Doctors have talked about going on a diaretic to clear out the fluids in my lungs but that would dry up my milk so we are going to wait it out and just deal with the symptoms.
So the shortness of breath and heaviness in my throat when I lay down is from the leak. The leak wasn't caused by my pregnancy, the symptoms just brought the leak to our attention. Valve leaks are from a serious infection or your born with it. In high school when I was on the swim team, I had a stress test done, I was told the chest pain was just inflammation in my chest and to eat more salt. So all these years when I've been having chest pains, I thought it was anxiety or the costochondritis-inflammation in the cartilage. My question is why did it take 31 years for someone to hear the murmur? Weird.

I've been athletic and very active my whole life with the exception of pregnancy. Maybe this pregnancy just weakened my heart enough for the murmur to show up?

Until my next appointment with the cardiologist, in 2 weeks, I'm to work-up-to 30 minutes of walking. THIRTY MINUTES. That is PATHETIC, I'm 31 freaking years old! I did a triathlon 1 1/2 years ago, now I'm working on being able to walk 30 minutes. I guess I should be patient, take it slowly. But did I mention I'm only 31! Sorry a little sarcasm there. Now I'm done complaining I'll move on.

Update...

Help! Does anyone know how to rotate pics on while composing blog after Image is loaded?

We spent half the day yesterday in the E.R. I was having breathing problems and chest pains. After having a EKG, X-ray, and CT scan we decided I wasn't going to die-no heart attack or blood clots. My blood pressure was high (it is usually really low) and I had a little water in my lungs. My body has a lot of water retention and it is settling in my lungs. They don't want to give me diuretics to reduce the water because it will dry up my milk. I have a head cold and plugged milk duct. Hopefully my OBGYN can give me a little more insight on Monday. It would be nice to be able to breath, heheheh.

Yesterday, baby Richard's billiruben levels spicked from 11 to 18 over night so now he is in a billiruben bed. Which means I can't hold him. :( Jaundice sucks!

Go Utes!!

Gotta start this kid off right-IN RED- before Spencer gets to him.

Warning: Contains words like Cervix and Uterus

Richard Oliver Musick’s Birth Story

Let me start by saying that I am so in love with this kid. Perhaps the difficult sacrifices we made to get him here attached me more deeply to this little person I just met. I can’t stop staring at his beautiful happy face.
Richard was conceived around Valentines’ Day, a love baby. It took every ounce of faith and courage I had to get pregnant again. I get pregnant embarrassingly easy but then have difficult pregnancies. Our babies have consecutively come earlier, with our last being pre-mature. Before getting pregnant I get depressed anticipating the sickness and loss of independence.
I had morning sickness up until about 7 months along. The nausea was significantly less at about five months and Zofran helps take the edge off the nausea. Along with nausea comes the urinary tract problems associated with dehydration. I managed to have few infections this time but had frequent bladder spasms due to all the irritation and scaring of past infections triggered by dehydration. At 20 weeks we went into Labor and Delivery because I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart. The next day we went in again and I was given Brethine to relax the contractions. I was told I had an irritable uterus (maybe caused because with Cynthia the placenta wouldn’t detach after delivery so the uterus had to be scraped) and would have to take it easy for the rest of the pregnancy. I couldn’t stand more than five minutes without triggering frequent contractions.
The ward helped us out for a few weeks with meals and babysitting and then that is when my angel of a Mother rescued me and became a frequent visitor to our house. After applying for a genealogical mission, the church misplaced her papers. Just about this time Taryn my sister-in-law and I found out we were pregnant and I went onto bed-rest. I don’t think it was an accident that she wasn’t given the calling because the Lord had another calling for her; to help my family. She had just had reconstructive surgery done for her double mastectomy and she was taking care of me. I remember her scraping out the mud in our gutters just 2 weeks after surgery. The kids love hanging out with “Grandma Lacey” (distinguished from other grandmas because of her Australian Sheppard- Lacey dog). She makes house chores fun and entertaining. I could never repay her for all she has done and given us. She lifted my spirit on hard days and gave me hope. It was the faith of her and others prayers that brought Richard full term and healthy.
At 30 weeks I started having painful contractions. Usually, between 12 and 2 AM. I learned that the only difference between false-labor and real-labor was that with one of them you ended up with a baby; equal in painfulness. After going to the hospital two more times I was given a prescription for Nortriptaline or Brethine to relax the uterus. The medication made me shake I felt like I was having panic attacks twelve hours after taking the medication. In general I have just hurt a lot. At 36 week we went to the hospital, after five hours of nauseatingly painful contractions, and then went home with no baby. We thought that when I went off the medication at 37 weeks we would soon have a baby. But to our surprise the hours of contractions stopped occurring.
It you know me, I’m independent and active, so being down for so long was REALLY hard. Four months of bed-rest gave me a chance to read a lot of books, learn to accept service from others (become more dependent), re-evaluate the important things in life, simplify my life and gave me time to think about deep gospel principles. Spencer has taken on the role of mother and father, he has been so kind and patient through the whole ordeal.
I was induced on November 10, my due date (or one week before my ultrasound due date). On the morning of Monday, November 10, we were schedule to be induced but had to wait until 10:00 pm because there was “no room in the Inn” or UVRMC. The storm had triggered labor in a lot of women so we had to wait for an opening. I was extremely anxious to “be done.” It was hard on my self esteem to have gained over 50 pounds. I snacked to keep the nausea at bay and sat on the couch for 4 months of bed-rest. I have lost significant amounts of muscle and find simple things exhausting. It’s going to be a lot of work to get back into shape, but he is so worth it.
Labor went slowly, after hours of maximum amounts of oxytocin (pitocin), my cervix was only dilated to a 4+. The contractions were painful so I was given a painkiller called Nubain into my IV, it felt fabulous. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been without pain. I had forgotten that you could actually live without pain. Life could be pleasant and void of restless leg syndrome, nausea, hip, and contraction pain. It’s funny that I had to go into real labor to be pain free.
I told the nurses that if they would break my water things would advance quickly and it did. I had the epidural put in and was ready to push in less than 2 hours. After the amniotic fluid was gone Richard’s heart rate dropped with every contraction. So they pumped saline solution back into the uterus and put a monitor on his head. With the other kids I did very little pushing. But Richard was posterior for most of the pushing and has a huge head. So the pushing part of the labor was difficult and long. I’m sure 4 months of bed-rest didn’t help my pushing strength.

On Nov 11th Veterans Day at 7:50 AM, 10 hours of labor, Richard came out and screamed for a long time. The nurses asked if our other kids cried like that, they weren’t. He weighed 8 pounds 1 oz and 20 inches long. He seemed huge to Spencer and I. He had a double chin, flattened nose and thick chest. When I first saw him I started crying. I tried not to bawl because it made my stomach shake while Dr Wolsey was still working on me. After being cleaned up Richard nursed like a pro and finally stopped crying.
We were in our room waiting for Richard to return from the nursery when we heard a baby screaming. I said, “Here comes Richard.” Sure enough it was our baby. We were worried that this was a fore shadow of the next six months. We joked that baby Richard took after Grandpa Richard—Grumpy. But now that we have got to know baby Richard we know that he is super good natured. They say that newborns can’t smile. But this sweet babe has the happiest face. He smiles all the time as if to say, “I got a body and get to be a part of this family.” I cry all the time when I think about him. The last nine months have been hell but he is worth it. Like I said before, I am so in love with him.

Barefoot and Pregnant

Spencer told me that if I was still pregnant on Halloween, he was going to dress up as me. I said, "There is no way I will still be pregnant on Halloween." Well....I was wrong. He painted his fingernails, wore my jewelry, makeup, and dress, bought women's shoes from D.I. (which he didn't wear most of the day because of swollen feet) and a wig, and stuffed his chest and stomach. He got second place at his work party and was awarded 75$. My cute cross-dressing husband was called to be the first counselor in the Elders Quorum of our ward the next day.

I Got Gum!

In the spirit of Halloween we put paper pumpkins in the window that Grandma Lacey (Thomsen) picked up for us. We waited to get adhesive tacky puddy to hang them up so as to prevent tape goop on the windows. The day after we hung the pumpkins in the windows with the yellow tacky puddy I noticed that all the pumpkins half way up the window were gone. I found a them stashed behind the couch. I laughed and went to put them up again but couldn't because all the puddy was gone. Then the aroma of stinky bum distracted me. While changing Cynthia's diaper I noticed she was chewing on something. I asked her what she was eating, she replied, "I got gum." Sure enough, Alex and Cynthia had no flavor, non-toxic, yellow, HandiTak chewing gum.

Armae for a Motorized Shopping Cart

Being on bed rest can be the most stressful rest. To sit and just watch. Before I felt like I was racing to keep ahead and now I feel like the world is flying by. What would I do with out the help of others? It's hard to give up independence or to feel like you owe other something. But then the ability to be independent prevents us from being part of a community. Modern technology and society teaches us to be more independent which in the long term hurts us. For example casual sex is independence and immature love that results in emptiness and loneliness.

The Japanese use a term"armae" which can't be translated into English but in essence means to belong or be loved. In japan the more intimate a relationship the less you show gratitude because gratitude says "I owe you something." I don't agree with not showing gratitude but their attitude is that you give for the greater good of the community or relationship instead of feeling a sense of indebtedness. In general humans experience a sense of wanting to be a part of something more and I think this goes back to our pre-existance. We miss our Heavanly Father and crave a closeness to our family and ancestors. You rarely meet Christians that don't beleive they will be with family in the after-life, even though the LDS church is the only church that validates those deep instincts.

I don't know if this makes any sense, I'm rambling but I'm adjusting to the difference of being dependent and find myself reading great books and pondering deep gospel principles.

I went to the grocery store a month ago with Spencer to stock up on frozen dinners (which by the way are not so good despite what Spencer's childhood memories are). While driving out of the store praying nobody would see me sporting the motorized shopping cart, Spencer dared me to go off the curb and do a wheelie. I laughed so hard it started contractions, mortified by using a wheelchair with the hilariously wimpy beep of a horn and warning sound of the of the reverse gear. Scenes from Seinfeild flashed in my mind of when George fakes disability and ends up racing down the sidewalk on his Jazzie with a hot persuit of angry Jazzie drivers behind him. Some of you know what I'm talking about and are laughing too.

I need to learn a little armae with wheelchairs if I plan on going to the store again in the next couple of months.

Think "Green"

Okay... so...being crappy sick all the time, I have watched more TV in the last few weeks than since I was a kid. And HD TV brings PBS to life. I am inspired to live more green. Maybe it is that spring is in the air but this is the inspiration I had.....ready for this......I want to raise chickens.

Okay, so do we get reported to the HOA (there was nothing in the codes covenants and restrictions about raising chickens) and do my neighbors think we are a little nutty back woods? Think of it, organic eggs (when it comes to my food, hormones and antibiotics freak me out, I don't want my daughters to start puberty at 8 years old) plus it teaches children to respect animals and work ethic. The closer we are to our food source the better it is for us. Then we could use the manure to fertilize the garden. I'm I getting freaky on anyone yet? I'm sure chicken poop is great for a compost pile. I haven't shared my inspiration with Spencer yet. But he is on the path because today he went to the hardware store with 2 kids and bought a couple hundred dollars of trax wood to build our grow boxes. Why is it that when you Google grow boxes it automatically thinks you want to grow cannabis?

I'm going to have to think more about the housing of the chickens and stuff.

Our backyard would be a 10 year old boys dream. With the river to huck stuff into and the wild animals to catch....chicken eggs to collect......poop to compost......ohhh yeah. Sometimes I think I should have been born male. How do dolls even come close to toads? I always tease Spencer that I use the power tools more than he does. But pregnancy kinda holds me back.

Mi Amor

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Some of the things I love about Spencer

• He is frugal and uses coupons.
  
  
• The way he plays with our kidlings.
  
  
• The scar on his chin because it reminds me that he has a great imagination. As a kid in Alhambra he was jumping on a bed pretending to be superman and jumped out a second story window. He often dreams of flying.
  
  
• His big toes. It reminds me how dedicated Spencer is to the Lord. In Colombia, he did a lot of walking as a missionary and developed ingrown toe nails. When the nail was ripped off at a local red cross the nurse said it looked like a snail shell. He can't stand anyone touching his big toes.
  
  
• He wears out his blading and wave board gear. He goes through a lot of jeans.
  
  
• His friends call themselves the Old Dogs of Lord Town (odolt). Some of them are in their early forties. They get prompts at the skate park from the twelve year old kids (who call them the old guys) while getting sick air on their blades and carving with the wave board.
  
  
• Spencer frequently gets blue and black "eggs" on his hips from going to the skate parks.
  
  
• When we go snowboarding we are carefree and young.
  
  
• When he talks about surfing with his Dad.
  
• He never talks about himself. He would never tell you that he graduated on the Deans list with honors.
  
  
• He would never tell you that he worked full time the whole eight years he was in school.
  
  
• He is honest and loyal.
  
  
• His computer GEEKINESS.
  
  
• He can eat all day and not gain a pound (or maybe I hate him for that).
  
  
• He isn't vain. I get embarrassed for him because he wears pants with holes in the knees to work. I guess they were comfortable.
  
  
• How he treats his mother and father.
  
  
• He is kind to animals.
  
  
• He changes diapers and the litter box.
  
  
• His green eyes, hands, thick black hair and muscular legs.
  
  
• When he wears hats...even his BYU hat.
  
  
• The way he quietly snores/breathes when he sleeps at night.
  
  
• His smell or when he wears Cologne.
  
  
• When he acts professional like.
  
  
• When he gives preisthood blessings.
  
  
• He is an eagle scout.
  
  
• He is a good listener.
  
  
• He likes playing softball with his Dad.
  
• He plays on the computer with Katrina.
  
  
• When we watch The Office or The Biggest Loser.
  
  
• When he likes my cooking or at least tries it.
  
  
• I like that he doesn't spend time watching sports.
  
  
• When he fixes stuff. Like around the house and on computers.
  
  
• His parallel thinking problems. I think thats what they call them? For example: a man is found hanging from a rope and there is only a puddle of water under him. How did he die?
  
  
• His taste in music.
  
  
• When he jams on his harmonica in the car.



• That his last name is Musick.

Spencer's Mission President-Brother and Sister Nunez in Lima Peru

Candy Factory

For Spring Break we visited Michelle in beautiful Folsom California known for it's very large men's prison. Michelle coped well with 11 house guests.

My favorite day was on the way to San Francisco. We never made it as far as San Fransisco. But on the drive we stopped in a small college town named Davis, it was picnic day. Thousand of people come together to.......picnic? We ate outside at a Bohemian restaurant called LITTLE PRAGUE. It was very romantic with the exception of three kids, two with ear infections. My prompts go out to the Czechs' for their potato pancakes.

Next we visited the world renown JELLY BELLY FACTORY. Wow...I was like a kid in the Willy Wonka factory minus the Oompa Loompas and the so fine Johny Depp. It was a happy place where Americans can dream of eating with out consequences. Did you know it takes 21 days to make a tootie frutie jelly belly? I steered clear of the Harry Potter beans like boogers, vomit (a recipe discovered when pepperoni pizza went wrong and a pinch of citric acid), grass, and pepper. I did try a Chili Releno (2 butter popcorn and 1 jalapeno) it made me queasy but there was no where to spit it out, so I swallowed. And quickly chased it with a cantaloupe Jelly Belly. There are hundreds of flavors.

To put the cherry on the sundae we went olive oil tasting. It was educational. I love bread and olive oil it makes me happy. Can you tell I'm pregnant? Food and I have a love-hate relationship.

While I have been neglecting my children, reading blogs, Cynthia bathed herself... with her clothes on. She tried sitting on a towel in the bath tub so she wouldn't get wet but quickly abandoned the plan. When I asked her if she was wet she responded with her classic, "nyeah." Which means yes. And then she asked for cheese. Her favorite.